The Meat Shop

I am excited to share that we have a Fresh Meat Shop down the street from our apartment. We finally ventured down to get some meat for a pot roast we wanted to make. The Shop is not expensive so why not get a fresh piece of meat to cook with!



Doesn't it just Look Delicious! A beautiful slab of Chuck Roast!



Now my idea of cooking is me not knowing what I am doing and just going with the flow and so far it has worked. We picked up a seasoning packet from the Commissary and just threw together onion, potatoes and carrots.



The crockpot is perfect for cold days like this and when I plan on baking all day.



I can taste it already!



A crockpot is a must have. And a delicious way to start a weekend.

A New Type of Blog

I have decided to start a new type of blog for Drew and me. I spend nearly 10 hours a day alone. And In order to keep my sanity I have decided to start a daily Blog. A Blog about what you ask, well about my day, my thoughts, events, or just plain insane thoughts I have had during the day. I’m sure someone out there will enjoy my insanity. I will even voluntarily take topic ideas. I know at some point I will run out of ideas or rants. This is not for people to judge or make fun; this is for family and friends to stay in touch.  I will take photos for some blogs, some I will just go on and on about who knows what.

 For starters, I thought I would kindly explain how I got where I am today as entertainment.

First off, this whole thing started I would say a little over 4 years ago when I met Drew. In a nut shell, I really don’t want to go into grave detail about 4 years, really no one wants to know about all that. So anyway, being married started Last June. Drew decided that college was not working out for him so he looked into options. The best option he decided was leaving for the Air Force. It is a job, a great job, a job with benefits, living expenses and even groceries. But the problem would be I would be left behind. So on to our yearly vacation.  We went to Tennessee and he proposed.  We came home and the crazy wedding stuff began.

In a nutshell when we were originally planning our wedding we were getting married June 26, we had almost a year to plan the wedding.  We picked our hall, our florist, and had a general idea of what we wanted. Drew left in October and would not return until December. I had school was occupied and had plenty of stuff to do. Since I knew he would be home in December I really had not planned a lot because he would be home to help.

December came slowly, very, very slowly.  It was like it could not come fast enough. Of course through all of the time of him being gone I was lucky to have great friends and my very supportive family and of course his wonderful supportive family.

When Drew came home of course he had to check in with his recruiter.  We sat down and talked to them and were getting the paperwork for them to make sure he could come home in June, and they said no.  Now, why could they not have told us that in September we don’t know.  So we quickly made calls and had to change our wedding to the weekend he would be come for in March before he moved to his permanent duty station. The real pain in the ass was my bridesmaids dresses for those who care, if you eve change your wedding and ask the company if they can order them faster, DON’T.  The company told me IF I had my last 3 girls come in that night, which they closed in like 3 hours, they could have them in. If not they wanted to charge me $80 more a dress. WHAT? Yeah really, they did tell me that. So me in a panic hassle my girls to go in and get sized. Afterwards the lady calls and says “I placed the order and they will be in the Saturday before the wedding.” Are you crazy? I’m thinking this is all going to go wrong. Needless to say they did come the Saturday before the wedding. It made me crazy.

Anyway, the wedding came and went, it was beautiful.  If you want to see pictures they are on facebook. Just ask and I will get them to you.

So, after the wedding, we packed up our Budget Truck, loaded up the car and drove. Yea Drove see....

I took my plant too. I won it at my cousins baby-shower. It is so cute.  I took care of it the entire 24 hour drive.  We took it in the hotels too.  Drew was like "really? You have to take it inside. You have been carrying that damn thing around for days,  you better not kill it." Ok maybe he didn't really say all that but he was thinking it for sure.  My plant is called a HOYA! and for the record I will make a post about it when it gets bigger.

Of course out of all the warm wonderful places in the world we get sent to South Dakota (it is not all bad you will learn through my blogging over the next few weeks). We move out to South Dakota and begin this little adventure. Our apartment has a great view though I will say it is the one thing I do love about it here.  It is beautiful.

Being married and moving within a week is not easy. This life is different, you move with no family, no friends, and you really have no clue of where you are.  When I drive I’m like ok where will I end up this time.  Haha. Truly though it’s not very funny, ok maybe it is because there is only 1 town and it is 20 miles north there is only 2 ways to get there, you turn left out of the parking lot  or you turn right! Wow that is hard, I know right?
And this is where my Blog begins. You will get a whole new perspective of life when you read what I have to say. I think for the most part that I’m hilarious. If you don’t think so keep it to yourself, I’m doing the best I can.

So anyway, I have many ideas for topics like my psycho cleaning, the annoying trips to the grocery store which you WILL find hilarious. I hope everyone enjoyed my rant.  I will return tomorrow with some adventurous tales to share.

HIS Military Uniform

So for those of you who don't know. Military uniforms are a pain in the ass to keep up with. No wrinkles, no strings hanging, some are dry clean, some you can wash at home, you have to iron, roll sleeves up, basically they have to be perfect.

One major thing about this uniform thing is, it is Drew's uniform, not mine. I don't HAVE to wash it, or iron it or do anything with it. I am nice and I can occasionally volunteer to do it. As long as we both know I do not have to do it. Well, and it is my new washer and dryer and I don't want him to mess it up. Men aren't gentle with things, they pretend to know what they are doing and don't ever bother to read the directions to work the electronic properly.

I don't mind ironing, I love my iron. It is pretty neat and it does everything I want it to. But in reality I truely don't really know how to iron I just hope when I'm done that everything that is visible is not wrinkled, which I believe is the point of ironing. But when you put it on, if it gets tucked in or is under your armpit I promise it will not be wrinkle free.

Now the biggest pain in the ass I would say is rolling up the ABU (A.K.A airman battle uniform, or Camaflouge) sleeves. They never are even, the never look good, and it is a pain in the ass. I of course called my brother in law the first time and asked him. He was so kind as to do a video chat with me to show me how to do it. Who would have guessed that the Marine's Cami's are done differently. Not me. So that plan when straight to hell. So now a few weeks later I have decided to just never wash his ABU's again. I don't know what I'm doing and really if I sit down and try I will be there for hours trying to figure it out.

Now I think that the uniforms need washed more than he does and when he is not paying attention I will switch them out so they are disgusting by the end of the month. Plus, I am not washing those dirty things with anything of mine, they get washed together. I don't waste water so they just wait til they all are dirty. Hence, the rotation of his uniform.

I swear if men could wear the same thing all the time, they would. They would never wash them. He will wait until he is down to no underwear before realizing he should probably do laundry. Since I am home all day and we have our own washer and drying I do it during the day, there is never any dirty laundry laying around now.

Now with these being his uniforms I only help out to be nice but sometimes it would be nice to have to watch him try to figure the washer out, or even figure out how to use an iron. Haha that would be funny. But then again I don't want him to ruin it because I use it for my fabrics. Anyway...

Here is an example that men don't realize that we offer to do things to be nice and don't realize we don't have to do the things we do for them...

We were sitting down for dinner one night and I was thinking about playing world of warcraft for something to do that night. So I asked...

Noelle: "Hey can we play WOW?"
Drew: "Are you done rolling up my sleeves, I have to wear it tomorrow"
Noelle: "Uh, you do know that I don't have to do it, I was being nice."
Drew: "Have I told you lately how much I appreciate you?"
Noelle: *rolls eyes*

Yea just for the record I didn't finish rolling them up that night. I waited...a long while.

So anyway, if it were cheaper to take the uniforms to the dry cleaners I would but its not, so I deal. It's really not that bad but I don't think people realize how much work goes into those damn things. I think it would be nice to know what you are wearing to work everyday, and have them all paid for, but they just are not easy to take care of.

There you go, there is my rant.

Anyone else have comments or problems with their men and laundry or their uniforms. Please share...

If you move one more time...

Drew and I have been married just over 2 months now. I will tell you one of the hardest things I am learning about is how to fall asleep and stay asleep with another body in the bed. I went from a twin sized bed to a queen. I was thinking there has to be so much room in this thing I won't even know he is there. Boy was I wrong. Let me point out to you the few key problems I have.
1. Snoring

I thought for sure snoring would not be as bad because (no offense Dad) I could literally here my dad snoring in his bedroom with his door shut with me sleeping in my bedroom (which was next door) with my door shut. Now Drew is not that bad. Surprisingly. He does these snores that scare the shit out of me and I think a gun has gone off. Anyway at least he is not a constant snorer. It does make me wonder if he knows I just woke up and decides to snore so I can spend the next hour debating on if I should suffocate him or not. For the most part I just hit him and he stops. You know what I mean.

2. Instant Falling asleep

There is one thing of my husbands that I want. I want his ability to fall asleep instantly. Like, mid conversation, the second his head hits the pillow, the instant he says he is tired and the moment we start a movie (after he has said "I'm not tired". If I had the ability to fall asleep that fast I may actually get a full nights sleep. I have such a hard time falling asleep. First you have to get comfortable, then you have to make sure the temperature is right, if you are hot before you fall asleep, there is no way you are going to make it through the night without being so hot you have to take all the covers off. I don't know if all men are like that, but I know I want to be like that.

3. Moving

The other problem about sleeping with another body in the bed is that when you move they move (unfortunately he still sleeps when I move), when they move you move (unfortunately it always wakes me up). I hear him get up for water or to pee, but when I get up he never seems to wake up or really move. I can't stand when he rolls over and he literally rolls, he doesn't stay on his side, or anything he actually ends up in the middle of the bed. That is not fair. He is like a giant. I can't roll him back over because most of the time I can't wake him up.

4. The amount of pillows he needs
Let alone my husband is a giant he insists of sleeping with 3 pillows...for himself. Queen bed, 3 regular pillows and a body pillow. BODY pillow, as in like another body, there is not enough room for all that. I finally told him the body pillow next to him at to go, so it now is above our heads, but he sleeps holding a large hard pillow. He holds it on his left side, so when he moves, so does that damn pillow. By morning he has 10 inches of bed on his left side, is smack dab in the middle of the bed and I'm praying that I don't fall off the bed. It has come to the point when the SECOND and I mean second his ass is up for work I am sprawled out on the bed like I own it. I get the best sleep when he leaves for work.

I suppose I am just not accustomed to sleep with another person in the bed which I am sure takes time to adjust to but I better get used to it soon. I want to be able to sleep well all night and not have to sleep in until 9 (or 11...) just to get some really good sleep because I finally have the bed all alone. I actually am thinking when I am done with school that I want to work midnights so we both can sleep better. Really, I don't think he could sleep any better then he does now since he sleeps like rock but I would not mind sleeping better.

I bet as you read this at least 1 thing jumped out at you, please share your experiences so I know that I am still normal.

Our First Easter Sunday

Our first Easter Sunday was quite interesting! I actually cooked! I made this fabulous lamb, which I am sorry to say we had eaten before we remembered to take a picture of it.

First I made a banana creme pie. I handmade the crust out of graham crackers.

I even so nicely placed the crust into the pan and spread it evenly. Mmmmm

I cut up banana and placed it around the crust then I poured the vanilla pudding on top. Yes I know I forgot a picture of the finished amazing pie! I am sorry.
I made Braided Egg Bread the recipe was out of the Taste of Home cookbook. I was even a good girl and waited until the temperture of the water and oil was at the 120 degree marker!
I braided the bread so beautifully! Actually it took Drew and I a few times to understand what the recipe was talking about because it said to remove a third of the dough ball and set aside and I had no clue what to do with it. But at last I read the directions again and realized what the heck it was talking about. Now look at it! Drew said it was so delicious! So did our friends!



Here is the amazing Hubby! He is putting seasoning and bread crumbs into a bowl to mix the lamb in. He was doing a great job so I let him be!

I am cutting up an onion to put onto the lamb and pour over some chicken broth. You let it cook for an hour, then you add potatoes and cook for another 30 mins, and then after that cut up a tart apple and cook that for 30 mins with the lamb. It was so delicious! We ate so much food we were stuffed!

I was very excited to have the opportunity to use my fine china! So I did!
Here is our beautiful kitchen! The fridge is on the right. I forgot to take a picture of the entire kitchen. The amazing flower vase is actually the pattern of my fine china! It was a gift from Drew's friends mother! I love it!

Hopefully soon, when Drew finishes the bedroom we will take pictures like a walk-through of our new home and post them up. We are planning on going to some museums, hiking, and to Mount Rushmore soon. It is still a little bit chilly here so we aren't in a hurry to run around outside! We can't wait to post more about our adventures! We love you all!

My New Dress!

By demand I decided to post a blog about my sewing adventure today! I would say a week ago Joann's had their patterns on sale so I bought 10 new patterns they all were Project Runway because I had made one a month ago and I found i could read the pattern and understand it so I thought rather than trying to comprehend something new I stuck with what I knew. So here is the pattern that started the inspiration of sewing a dress!The one I really like is the one on the left. I really liked that fabric but I could not find anything close to it. I feel bad because I drug Andrew out to the fabric store and all he did was continuously beat me with the zipper I had to buy. But hey company sometimes is better than none.
The glorious part is finding out the jigsaw puzzle on where to place the pieces of the pattern, which comes after reading the pattern and attempting to find out which 5 pieces out of the 20 they give you (ok maybe 15 tops...but who is really counting.)
Here is a close up of the fabric I bought. It is I think Indian Sari fabric... I'm not really sure.
Finally I cut them all out!
Here is the Bodice. No sleeves yet because I was having difficulty understanding what it wanted me to do.

Here is where I was sewing the sides after the pockets. You had to sew the pockets in first then sew around the pocket.
Here is the front skirt. You can kind of see the pockets. If you can't tell I love pockets! Ask my 6 bridesmaids, their dress has pockets in it.
This is the back of the skirt.
Finally I calmed down enough to do the sleeves! They turned out awesome. I decided to use double fold bias tape, and some gold thread to create a design on the sleeves and the neck of the dress.
My least favorite part I would have to say in sewing would have to be the horrible zipper. Grrrr...it makes me so angry. After I pin the zipper on, I try it on, and so far both times the dresses have fit. I hate to see the day when I go to try it on and it does not fit and I have to rip all the stitches out and try again. But the bonus of using the same brand of pattern is I know what size I am since the 2 I have made fit!
The final step, the hemming!
Tada!
The neck line I think turned out really neat! And of course the wicked pockets.
If anyone wants me to make a cute totebag or has fabric and is not sure what to do with it, I would love to make you something! I am taking requests for dresses, tote bags, and I have a pattern for little jackets to go over dresses and shirts. Let me know!

Drew's Leaving on a Jet Plane

I thought I would share the day before Drew left for basic training. His recruiter told him to meet him at noon to check in before he had to go up to Cleveland to check in the MEPS station. Finding out that he actually had to be in Cleveland within an hour. He was not planning on going so soon he thought he could wait as late as possible to spend time at home with his family and me. His mother call me to let me know she was going out and then would pick me up and we would drive to Cleveland together. We talked about so many different things throughout our drive. We got a call from Drew telling us he could not even check into his hotel for 2 more hours. So we decided to go to Tower City Mall. I have never been there before but I was not impressed.

Here we are attempting to get a nice picture in front of the water fall. I could not help myself but laugh because Katie (Drew's mom) kept trying to get the waterfall in the picture but they were going too fast.

Soo cute!

Here is Drew's dad Roy, and Us at the hotel in the lobby.

The next day we met Drew at the MEPS Station. We basically waited around all day. He sat with us for a little while but then he had more papers, more information, more things, and more stuff to be told. So we finally followed them outside to watch him be sworn in.
They were waiting patiently for someone to start the Swearing in. Drew told me he was staring into the guys head in front of him because he was trying hard not to laugh.

Here the group is Swearing in.
Here is Drew! I bet he is thinking "I sure hope I know what I'm doing."
Here is the group that was all leaving together to start Basic Training.
After they swore in we were allowed to follow the bus to the airport. ::Tears:: This I knew was not going to fun or easy. But We followed. Here We are outside the Airport
Here is Katie (Drew's Mom) and Him. She did amazing.

After waiting for a few LONG hours. It was time for him to go. He cried, I cried and his Mom cried. He was soo sweet. When we were waiting we were staring out the window and he started to sing Craig David. He always does that it made me laugh. He is no where near the America's Next Star but it was pretty sweet. We hugged a bit right before he go on the plane and we danced. I did not even care if the entire airport was staring at us. It was almost like slow motion. Corny, Right? I don't care. That is TRUE LOVE! Here he is one last time for 2 months.
I know it was a really good picture! Here he goes:Up Up and Away!Until December 3rd. That is all of him. I will post some fun entertaining things I will be doing to entertain myself! Enjoy!